external enclosure/dock ssd options...

sup fellas. some of you may know i just got back my sager np9772/clevo p770zm. both my SATA ports bit the dust unbeknownst to me after I received it taking my 512GB 850 pros down with it. luckily i was able to do some sleuthing and recovered at least 90% of critical data that was strewn all over the place. the most important part is I recovered all the critical stuff and didn't have to rip anything or use a data recovery service. fast forward to getting my notebook close to original state and I have 2 dead 512GB pros and 1 1TB 850 EVO I used to dl/scrounge all my data. what's weird is that I have several external usb3 to SATA3 enclosures. they all work/ed fine before. I have an intel X25 32GB that works great and all my HDD's also. I already figured out my 1TB 850 EVO does not work. windows recognizes in disk management but I cannot initialize it. Samsung screwed the pooch so I bought 2 more 512GB 850 pros from amazon to alleviate that problem. to my surprise neither one works in any of the external enclosures I have but they consistently work fine with the intel 32GB and all my HDD's. I've done a lot of research and I am up in the air about getting an eSATA enclosure. going from what I know, it would use my eSATA port and get power from a USB3 port. what's even more strange is my USB3 hub, which supports BC 1.2 for extra power won't work, but I think BC is for extra charging power. part of my question is, are there any outstanding eSATA enclosures that will help with these 3 drives not working in any of my conventional USB3 enclosures? seems I will have to get a SATA docking station for external storage. probably a 2 port SATA would fit my needs. I also wouldn't mind getting a NAS station for the semi server/offsite networking storage for the convenience. instead of using my hub or port from my batman I could set it up near my router and eventually get it to a seamless workflow and have stable power/access to them for backup. definitely staying on top of my backups after the ordeal I went through.

I hope this thread isn't too far off topic. the hardware section used to have a dedicated SSD section but apparently it is gone. I came here because if you're using SAGER/CLEVO and even if you're not a gaming/workstation enthusiast you have a SAGER/CLEVO because some of the guys here are enthusiasts in whatever they do, and better yet, there are quite a few guys here that have special powers/knowledge that are underappreciated and they are like Superman when it comes to IT/IOT/tech support or very god like powers in certain aspects. my question is are there any recommendations for external enclosures or docking stations for external use? or how about NAS's like synology? if i go the NAS route I don't want to spend too much and will probably look for something used but is still fairly modern. I don't need the fastest speeds of course, but reliability and decent speeds (hopefully at least 100MB/s minimum but closer to 300MB/s would be ideal). and like I said I made a thread here because there are many knowledgeable guys that frequent here. in my world I am the super geek for tech support but I come here and there are a handful of guys that make me look like a noob. sorry for the over the top babbling but I just wanted to flesh out what I'm looking for because I am quite surprised that at the minimum my 850 pros didn't work in my several year old USB3 enclosures that were bleeding edge at the time I bought them. the 850 EVO has me scratching my head. I would've settled for 1/3 to 2/3 of expected performance if these met the power envelope. tomorrow I will be receiving 1 Inateck FE2002 to see if that helps. about 4-5 years difference from my masscool enclosures that worked awesome and still do, but not for these newer SSDs. Recommendations? oh, btw, if NAS gets recommended I want reliable, quiet, cool and hopefully uncomplicated setup. I am using Netgear Nighthawk R6400 and Netgear GS105Ev2 5 port switch for my home network setup. I use ethernet exclusively aside from my smartphones if that matters in any way. so the NAS thing is a viable option if some recommendations come my way about that. got the Nighthawks for a steal. such a steal, that my sister has the NHR6700. both $200 routers i spend well below $90 for each one. help. I need to get this squared away. I slacked off and a MB failure bit me in the butt hard and I want easily accessible seamless backup solutions.

that was my main and most important questions. the next couple are bonus pleas for help. any chance that very soon or next couple of years that we can OLED screens as an option for the higher end SAGER/CLEVO DTRs? I know it will be expensive but OLED screens are where it's at right now not to mention the power savings, especially if you black out your OS installation. nothing beats the blacks and contrast of an OLED. plus the viewing angles are even better than a top shelf IPS. I wouldn't mind a LED array behind the screen but methinks the power consumption, the rigors your DTR would go through if you use your DTR portable more often than being a DTR and potential failures of zones for something that probably wouldn't get top of the line QA are hindrances. the price alone would be a turn off for those on a tight budget but methinks that ABS or even metal would have to be used to mitigate the rigors of portability. just a thought. personally, I wouldn't want 4k though I am quite sure many people want the option. 1080p would be just fine for me, but I'm sure WQHD (2560X1440) would be very desirable for others that want more than 1080p but don't want 4k. come on clevo. source some OLED screens. at the very least it puts another notch in your hat to make your pop up on mainstream radar. can you imagine? OLED already offers pretty good low latency but the low nits, the unlit pixels for true blacks and not being able to hold a candle to LED/LCD screen contrast would make me consider my 5 year upgrade plan go out the window. oh and sunglight/bright light legibility make it a no brainer. man, I love OLED sunlight legibility and the low low nits at night would sell itself if not for price. would help offset the desktop cpu/gpu power consumption probably enough to notice also.

while I am making this thread, the kind members at NBR came up with pictures of the innards really quick today. so does it look like future generation SAGER/CLEVOs will at least be able to fit future non-standard MXM for like the 11xx/12xx and beyond? that would make up for deviating from standard MXM3. personally I was a little disappointed at the mandatory 6 core 12 thread setup for the intel CPU. it would be very nice if intel still made top shelf i7's but 4 cores. the extra cores and almost desktop GPU can make for some headaches with thermal headroom unless you hit the lottery on both the CPU and GPU. excluding the 870 series which can handle SLI i think Clevo should consider a 3rd very small fan. kind of airtight the insides so it can suck out excess heat from the NVME drives and all other excess heat. something like a 10mm fan and an almost sealed or sealed motherboard and auxiliary components could happen with a little extra engineering and help temps at least another couple -2*C. every little bit helps especially with 6 core and a barely neutered desktop GPU. oh and let's not forget the borked BIOS Clevo uses. we should at least get something in between prema bios and the neutered version that ships currently.

lol. while i'm getting these burning questions and beer off my chest Clevo needs to stop using the cost saving keyboards and give the 15"ers the same keyboard. the 17"ers need to get the full width keyboard. would probably help temps a little bit too.

I apologize if I rambled too much. beer will do that sometimes. need that first question answered for sure. and appreciate your participation if you made it this far. I am still on the Clevo p770zm with a just replaced motherboard. this laptop still wows me. very disappointed that nVidia screwed the fan base and borked the MXM standard. my plan is to keep going with it another couple years. thinking about sending it in for prema bios, some slight dremel mods to help cooling and if money and opportunity allows I really want to get the i7 5775c. I've looked over the years and it still to this day goes for $1-200 if not more than the 4790k. some of us don't need all the power and overclocking we can get. there are the guys like me that prefer efficiency and running cooler more than brute strength. that 128MB edram more than makes up for the lesser clocks, not to mention it undervolts and runs cooler without trying.

damn. this thread makes me want to get a 775TM so bad. I need to wait a generation or two before entertaining the thought. don't need 6 cores and hopefully nVidia slaps some thermal headroom in the next couple generation GPUs.

later. hope I get some good recommendations and some knowledge dropped soon about the external enclosure situation. my Sager NP9772 is still rocking my world and running pretty damn cool for all the power packed into it. please, no solicitations or egging me on to get a 775TM-G. trust me, I've already done quite a few customizations on several websites. if it weren't for DD4 and NVME drives I probably would be weighing my options. Pleeeeease don't. lol.

 

'Sup.

In regards to USB docking stations for 2.5" and 3.5" drives - See http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/external-ssd-options.817276/#post-10732776

 

As for your storage needs, it really depends on your budget and your access needs. A NAS is a nice, neat package that you connect via Ethernet and use it as cloud storage. It can be configured to be accessed via secure Internet connection as well. My major issues with NAS are: 1) cost for the enclosures 2) storage capacity (bays).

In my situation, I have a few old PCs with very nice and roomy cases that I can just turn into a NAS tower. There are Linux distros just for this, or you can setup Windows to do it via Shares or using a 3rd party application. Set Windows Update to Manual and you are ready to rock.

For my new laptop setup, for external storage I went with Seagate Backup+ units, 4TB and a 6TB. The 6TB has a built-in USB3 hub, so you can daisy chain them on each other, and only need 1 USB3 port to the laptop. And they don't cost an arm and a leg either. I also didn't need to access them while travelling, so USB3 was fine.

I also have a Nexstar USB3 to SATA3 adapter for plugging in drives I use for archiving or other miscellaneous endeavors. This one is powered so I can connect 3.5" drives. I also have an older Seagate 1TB 2.5" drive USB3 whose SATA connection comes off, and can use with any other 2.5" SATA, like SSDs for example.

If you want something more desktop permanent, a docking SATA enclosure would work just fine.

As mentioned before, I don't know how much external storage you require, so I can't give you a final suggestion. I like the newer Seagates with the USB3 hubs, it makes expansion so easy by daisy chaining.

 

OLEDs suffer from burn in and computers can have long running static segments (think start button) which make them an issue.

 

I wouldn't have burn in. My laptop doesn't stay on desktop much. Plus I use full screen browser, YouTube, read a lot, steamlink and I turn my screen off often because I use steamlink. It would be a nice option though. An expensive one at that. But it is another thing clevo can do to try and gain marketshare since there so few laptops that use OLED. And anything to gain an edge in battery life.

And thanks guys for reading my babbling. Frustrated with some heineken in me. I found a docking station solution. Inateck. Their usb3 to SATA works. Mostly, but not enough to trust so I will have to go the dock route. It will probably be inateck, but I am hoping to find Anker somewhere. Anker's dock is out of stock on Amazon. I searched NAS's today. For some reason the geek in me says to get a 4 bay NAS. Tomorrow I will see if can justify a 2 bay one. The benefits of having my personal cloud could get me over that hump.

Clevo should make the next p77x series only have one 2.5" drive and have like 4-5 m.2 slots available. Imagine the couple extra accessories that could fit in m.2 form factor. Sim/s, extra Wireless card and would a DAC work through m.2? Extra cooling could be added. And if MB and chassis designed right could add a micro fan that blows out hot air from other components out towards the back also. Yeah, 2 bigger fans to accommodate 6 cores and deviation from MXM and a micro exhaust fan that pipes the 'other' hot air keeping the drives and controllers a bit cooler. And OLED screen dammit! Who's coming with me?! Lol.